Dinosaur Volcano Cake
Dinosaur Volcano Cake! Moist chocolate zucchini cake loaded with vegetable goodness & drizzled generously with chocolate ganache. The extra X-factor? Lava spouting volcano and those cute bambino Dinos!
Servings: 18 large servings
Ingredients
Baby Dino
- 4 x 40g white compound chocolate
- Red, Blue, Green & Orange gel food coloring
Chocolate Zucchini Cake & Chocolate Ganache
- I doubled my chocolate zucchini cake recipe to make this Dinosaur Volcano Cake. For the chocolate ganache, no need to double, keep it as per the original recipe. (Check the recipe link above ⬆️ or in the notes below ⬇️ )
Rice Crispie Volcano
- 2 cups rice crispies
- 1 1/2 cup marshmallows
Oozing Pink Chocolate Lava
- 1/4 cup white chocolate
- 1/4 cup cream
- 2 to 3 drops rose pink gel coloring
Condiments:
- 1/4 cup crushed pistachios
- 1/4 cup diced strawberries 🍓
- 1/4 cup cake crumbs (use cake scraps)
Instructions
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Prepare and bake the chocolate zucchini cake in two sizes, a 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch rectangle and a 5 inch round. Once it’s cooled, level the cakes and set aside. Keep cake scraps for use as condiments.
Rice Crispie Volcano
- Combine 2 cups rice crispie and 1 1/2 cup marshmallows in a glass bowl. Microwave ~ 30 sec to melt the marshmallows.
- Using spoons, mix the rice crispies with the melted marshmallows until you get a rice crispie dough.
- When the mixture has cooled slightly, wear gloves and mould with your hands. Sculpt the rice crispie dough into a volcano. Create a crater right at the top for the lava to ooze out. Work quickly.
Oozing Pink Lava
- *Make this just before serving the cake*
- Combine the white chocolate and heavy cream in a glass bowl. Microwave the white chocolate mixture in 30sec spurts until melted then color with the pink food coloring as desired.
Assembly
- Using a little chocolate ganache, place and secure the rectangular chocolate cake onto a large cake board. Poke small holes in the cake using the back of a chop stick and fill it over with chocolate ganache.
- Using a palette knife, gently nudge the ganache into the poked holes and slightly over the edge of the cake. *It is fine if some ganache drips onto the cake board. This can be layered over later with the condiments to form the gravel at the foot of the volcano.
- Place the 5-inch round onto this first layer. (I like to put my volcano at the corner but it can also be placed in the centre, as preferred) Again, poke holes in the 5-inch round with the chopstick and layer over with ganache.
- Place the rice crispie volcano firmly onto the 5 inch round. Decorate the surface of the rectangular cake with streaks of chopped strawberries, crushed pistachios and cake crumbs (crumbled from the saved cake scraps). Watch video @4:33 min to see how this is done.
- Stick a small toothpick into each friendly dino and place them as you like, onto the volcano cake. Finally just before serving, slowly pour the oozing pink lava into the crater of the rice crispie volcano and let it ooze out gently and flow onto the cake.
- For best effect, save some oozing pink lava for the guests or birthday boy to enjoy pouring into the crater when the cake is served . Enjoy!
Video
Notes
If you like this recipe tutorial and like to see more, subscribe to my YouTube channel here 😊
For my chocolate zucchini cake and chocolate ganache recipe, check it out here.
#1 Making the Bamdinos
I used compound white chocolate to make the baby dinos. Compound chocolate is stable at room temperature and does not melt easily unlike couverture chocolate. This made it the perfect choice for the dinos especially in our humid and sunny Singapore cave.
Coloring the dinos was up next. We were going for a scary volcano but with cute dinosaurs which the birthday boy loves. So they had to be playful and colorful.
If you were thinking of painting on the food color, *DON'T* The gel coloring when painted on completely smudges on the hand when the dino is held.
The food coloring is best mixed into the melted white chocolate to get the different shades preferred, then moulded into dinos. I found a brand new silicone dinosaur mould amongst my baking wares (credit to good shopping genes) which had the cutest variety of dinos and was perfect for moulding.
#2 Work fast on the volcano!
The volcano needs to be sculpted when the marshmallow rice crispie dough is still soft and malleable. Once the marshmallow starts to solidify, (and it only takes a few minutes) it will be most difficult to shape the dough at will. Therefore WORK QUICKLY.
#3 Condiments? Your call
I used crushed pistachios and chopped strawberries (requested by birthday boy) to color the terrain and lined the volcanic grounds with chocolate cake crumbs gravel (perfect use of the cake scraps). Pecans, walnuts, cashew, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, even gooseberries, all these are equally possible options. Go with the imagination. Pick your preferred condiments and make your Dinosaur Volcano Cake come alive!
#4 Oozing Lava
What’s a Dinosaur Volcano Cake good for if it doesn’t erupt? :-D This Oozing Lava is the ultimate cherry on top. The lava ganache can be made ahead but be aware that it could have thickened as it cooled and may not be of pouring consistency. There is a simple fix - just before serving, microwave the lava ganache for 30 seconds to loosen up and voila, the oozing lava is ready for action!
Did you make this? I would love to know how it turned out. Please leave me a comment or tag me on Instagram / FB hashtag #thesugarcrumble !